Maliki’s sectarian politics have paved the way for ISIS’s rapid advance.
Iraq’s breakdown has been a crisis in the making since 2003. The seeds were sown when the then US Governor Paul Bremmer decided to dissolve the Iraqi army and security forces, leaving a country of almost 30 million people defenseless and vulnerable. This was followed by the drafting of the 2005 constitution that failed to establish an equitable balance of power among the country’s rival communities. The failure of the Shi’a majority-led governments of Nuri al-Maliki in the years that followed to include the other communities (especially the Arab Sunnis) in the political process provided the breeding ground for an insurgency, that has gone beyond mere protests against central authority. (CONTINUED - 1147 WORDS)
